Archives for USAID

This week Administrator Raj Shah visited India and Burma. The Press Trust of India reported on USAID’s announcement to extend “two of its flagship projects for child survival in India”. The renewed commitment of the two nations through the USAID, “aims to end all preventable child deaths and to strengthen India’s Call to Action on Child Survival and Development.” The agency “resumed work in Burma ” in November, after Washington suspended most sanctions against the country,” according to the AP. “Since then, USAID has committed $171 million to health, food security, democracy, human rights and rule of law programs.”

In an interview with Reuters, Administrator Shah exclaimed the international community is slowly rethinking its policies toward Burma in light of the government’s decision to implement a number of reforms. He noted, “Everything we do is geared toward making these reforms sustainable and more durable, and if there’s backtracking, we will not continue to expand our efforts.”

The Yemen Times reports, “During the revolution, armed militias and government forces used hundreds of children’s schools as barracks and firing points” and they left many Yemeni schools “in complete disrepair, some destroyed entirely. Now, nearly two years later, 380 of those schools have been repaired, ” thanks to a number of organizations including USAID.

In January 2013, a mortar shell struck an apartment in Dar’a Governorate. A mother in an adjoining apartment grabbed her 7-month old son Dia’a* and ran to check for survivors.

Just as she discovered her brother was killed in the attack, another mortar shell hit the building—this time killing one of her other sons. The explosion also ruptured a water heater, blasting scalding water on Dia’a’s face and right arm.

Seven-month-old Dia'a* sustained burns to his face and arm after a shell hit his house, causing a nearby water heater to burst water onto him. Photo credit: USAID NGO Partner

Dia’a was rushed to a nearby Syrian government-run medical clinic, where many believe that women and children can safely receive care. After Dia’a received basic aid, a worker at the clinic discreetly warned the mother that they should leave before she and her son were both killed.

The family fled to the Jordanian border and were received by Jordanian border guards, who transported them to Za’atri refugee camp. During the trip, Dia’a contracted a severe infection, which needed to heal before further he could receive treatment.

Every four hours, a medical team at a U.S.-funded clinic is changing the dressings on Dia’a’s burns. As soon as the infection is gone, doctors at the clinic will perform a skin graft. Doctors expect Dia’a will make a full recovery, despite the scars from his burns.

Dia’a’s mother expressed gratefulness for the care her son is receiving at the U.S.-funded medical clinic and also thanked the Jordanian government for assisting her family and countless other Syrians in their time of need.

In total, the United States is providing nearly $385 million to help the innocent children, women, and men affected by the crisis in Syria. U.S. humanitarian aid includes emergency medical care and medical supplies, food aid, and winterization and other relief supplies that will help more than 2.4 million people in Syria, as well as the more than 1 million who have fled to the safety of neighboring countries.

This past week I traveled to India and Burma to meet with leaders of the private sector, civil society, and government who are charting their nations’ bright and prosperous futures. In Mumbai, I had the opportunity to sit down with a group of courageous women advocates to discuss gender-based violence. It was especially meaningful to have this conversation leading up to International Women’s Day, particularly because this year’s theme is A Promise is a Promise: Time for Action to End Violence against Women. It was only recently that thousands of young men and women took to the streets in India to protest the tragic death of a 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who was the victim of a brutal gang rape in Delhi.

At our meeting, we discussed the opportunity to shift ingrained social and cultural practices that perpetuate sexual violence among women, girls, and boys and the importance of educating India’s future generations. We also talked about the need for better data, stronger laws, and expanded services to both prevent and respond to gender-based violence.

I was honored to inform them that the young woman known worldwide as “Nirbhaya” (Fearless) would be honored posthumously by First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry at the Department of State’s Women of Courage Awards event this year.

A few days later, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. Aye Aye Mu, who has been practicing medicine in Burma since 1977. It quickly became clear that the Doctor and I share the same vision for development—beginning with the community level and drawing on the strengths of both private sector and civil society. Dr. Aye Aye Mu is part of a network of active health providers that is supported by our Agency and covers 217 of Burma’s 324 townships.

Through an innovative approach called “social franchising,” Dr. Aye Aye Mu helps encourage doctors running their own private clinics to improve the scope, quality, and accessibility of their services by joining the franchise called the SUN Quality Health Clinics. Started by our long-standing partner Population Services International in Myanmar, this network provides affordable, quality health care services nationwide.

Today, this network is contributing in remarkable ways to USAID’s ambitious yet achievable goal of ending preventable child death and improving the lives of women and children. In 2012 alone, Dr. Aye Aye Mu conducted over 5,000 reproductive health consultations, diagnosed and treated 107 pneumonia cases, and diagnosed and treated 243 tuberculosis cases with a treatment success rate of over 80 percent. By leveraging the local private sector to deliver health commodities and better quality, affordable health care services, she receives quality birth spacing products and anti-malarial drugs at subsidized prices and passes the savings to those who need it them most.

Our Agency is working hard to save lives, especially among children. Building upon the Child Survival Call to Action, USAID is introducing a global public private partnership, Survive and Thrive, which will be linked to local partnerships to increase coverage of high impact and high quality interventions delivered by midwives to women and newborns wherever births occur. Working closely with our partners, these efforts will help improve the quality of maternal and newborn health by linking Burmese health care providers at the community level to their peers from American professional associations.

From India to Burma, these efforts advance the aspirations of the first-ever United States Strategy to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence Globally, which was released this past year. The strategy pledges to improve coordination across U.S. government agencies to improve the quality of our programming and strengthen our impact. In a world where rates of gender-based violence show no signs of abating, it is increasingly important that we work together to improve women’s lives.

This past week has been an incredible experience. Even as we advance gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide, it is important to remember on this International Women’s Day that women and girls are not just victims. They are leaders, change-agents, and innovators, courageously improving lives and expanding opportunities around the world for individuals, families, and communities. As our policies and initiatives gain traction and implementation gains speed, we will work beside them to ensure our aspirations translate into concrete results around the world.

Working to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment around the world can be a challenge. There are difficult days when you wonder if your efforts are having a real impact on the lives of women and girls facing violence, deprivation, discrimination and disempowerment on a daily basis. But when you have the opportunity to meet individuals fighting to create a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities, it makes it all worthwhile. Yesterday was one of those days.

Yesterday USAID was proud to host the International Women of Courage awardees. These remarkable women put themselves at risk every day to make a difference not only for themselves but for women and girls everywhere.

In Nigeria, Dr. Josephine Odumakin has spent the past 20 years handling over 2,000 cases of violations of women’s rights, including cases of extrajudicial practices committed by government security agencies against women.

Fartuun Adanis a true human rights activist in Somalia. She champions women’s rights, peace-building, and the rehabilitation of child soldiers. In 2010-2011, Ms. Adan initiated a program to support survivors of gender-based violence in Somalia’s internally displaced persons camps and launched the first sexual violence hotline and rape crisis center in Mogadishu.

In Russia, Yelena Milashena is an investigative reporter for one of the few remaining independent Russian newspapers. She has distinguished herself for her cutting-edge, hard-hitting journalism covering the terrorist seizure of a school in Beslan, the seizure of the Dubrovka theater in Moscow, human rights abuses in the North Caucasus, and corruption in the Russian Federal Narcotics Control Agency. Most recently, Ms. Milashina has reported on the vote-rigging and abuses by government officials during the December 2011 elections.

Malalai Bahaduri is an Afghan National Interdiction Unit instructor committed to the professional development of the Counter Narcotics Police – Afghanistan (CNP-A). As the first female member of the NIU, First Sergeant Bahaduri reminds us that Afghan women can lead in very high level technical positions. Through her integral role as an instructor at NIU, she focuses on efforts to target the most significant drug trafficking networks, collect evidence, and arrest and prosecute Afghan drug traffickers in accordance with Afghan law.

Julieta Castellanosis an advocate who has played a central role in efforts to overcome enormous challenges afflicting Honduras, including rule of law, anticorruption, and promoting citizen security. She was instrumental in forming an umbrella organization for more than 400 organizations that has given civil society a more powerful voice and an unprecedented ability to engage with the government. Ms. Castellanos has also pressed relentlessly for systemic reform of the country’s dysfunctional police and justice sector institutions.

For their efforts, these courageous women have endured threats, detainment, and violence. Some of them have been shunned by their families and communities, or lost livelihoods and loved ones. Still, they press on. It is for these women and the millions like them that we work every day to expand opportunities and improve the lives of women and girls around the world.

USAID will train over 3,300 women in Haiti to manage natural resources and better invest in crops that can generate income and stabilize hillsides as part of our Feed the Future initiative. It’s why I’m proud that over 140,000 women in Pakistan are increasing their income by 30-40% as part of our Entrepreneurs, Firms, and Baluchistan Agriculture projects.

In Afghanistan, our Women In Transition (WIT) program provides educated young women with enhanced technical and leadership skills to facilitate entry and advancement into mid- and high-level positions in government, the private sector and civil society over the next five years. We’re also launching a public-private partnership with Chevron South Africa and Anglo-American to support a gender-based microfinance program called Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity (IMAGE). The program combines microfinance with a gender and HIV training curriculum to improve women’s financial independence, reduce vulnerability to HIV and gender-based violence, and foster wider community mobilization.

In Bangladesh, we’re launching a pilot project to test multi sector approaches to child marriage prevention with a focus will be community sensitization, involving local religious authorities, media, local NGO and civil authorities. We’re also expanding our efforts in the Democratic Republic of Congo to raise community awareness about gender-based violence (GBV) and support survivors, granting them increased access to medical and psycho-social care, legal assistance, and income generating activities.

These brave individuals, dedicated partners, and determined civil society organizations are delivering real results for women around the world. We are proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

Last week in Burma, USAID hosted a technology delegation with the top American companies in the industry, including Cisco, Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard and Google. With extremely low Internet and mobile coverage in-country and the government’s determination to create a more transparent and efficient governance, we were on the hunt for partnership opportunities to make a speedy transition.

Burma’s Minister of Communications, Information Technology called the delegation the ‘ICT Dream Team’ and outlined specific ways in which we could be helpful. He told us how pleased he was that these companies were committed to both the economic and social development of their country. Too often others seemed to only care about the former.

We knew that in order for everyone in the country to benefit from a digital economy and for the government to develop the know-how to navigate the technology, Internet was key. Fortunately the companies involved in the tech delegation have experience developing and rolling out projects in digital literacy and business skill training in other countries on a massive scale. One of those companies is Cisco.

USAID has a long history with Cisco on public-private partnerships and they too had recently established operations in-country. Together, we have successfully developed and managed alliances in more than 70 countries. These partnerships range from focused projects where USAID and Cisco address development needs in one community by providing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions, to large multi-partner alliances that have both broad and deep impact across a region or country, with the common goal of enabling human capacity-building and workforce development.

Drawing upon this established global partnership, Cisco committed to working with USAID to establish two Networking Academies in Burma within the next several months. Cisco Networking Academies are the flagship of Cisco’s social investment programs worldwide. They have established over 10,000 Networking Academies in 165 countries, helping individuals build ICT skills and prepare for industry-recognized certifications and entry-level ICT careers in virtually every type of industry. Over the next four to six weeks, Cisco will identify the location and donate lab equipment to support the launch of the Networking Academies.

This is just the beginning. USAID has long-standing relationships with the major global technology companies with track record of advancing development outcomes while aligning with core business interests. The technology companies bring deep expertise, leading-edge technology products and platforms, and extensive experience in leveraging their core business and technology capabilities to advance outcomes ranging from strengthening governance and transparency, advancing education and fostering entrepreneurship and economic growth.

We know that broad-based economic growth is essential to long-term development. That is why USAID has adopted a model for development that seeks to achieve development goals more sustainably and at scale through high-impact and innovative partnerships. With this in mind, we are building public private partnerships with U.S. businesses, university networks and civil society, linking them to development projects and encouraging the Burmese people to invest in their own development. Transition must come from within and USAID is committed to working alongside the people of Burma in building a path to prosperity.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”. In observance, this week USAID is profiling brave individuals and dynamic programs focused on addressing gender-based violence around the world.

War defined childhood for a generation of girls born during Sudan’s civil conflict, which lasted from 1983 to 2005.

For Athieng Riak Jok, who was born in 1984, the disruption caused by war also protected her from being married off at an early age. Jok was born into a cattle-owning community that values women as a source of income in the form of cattle. In order to marry, men traditionally give a woman’s family cattle as a dowry.

For Jok, war disrupted that practice. “I grew up on the run,” Jok says.

She recognized early that her community did not value educating girls, and her own family sent only boys to school. “This experience has shaped my view. I became aware of social injustice at an early age and grew up with increased curiosity. Although I did not start formal schooling until after the age of 11,” Jok says. ” I was using every available opportunity to learn, including imitating my brother who was in school and did homework.”

Jok eventually graduated high school while living in a refugee camp in Kenya, won a scholarship in 2007 and graduated from a Canadian university in 2011. Last year, she returned to South Sudan, which gained its independence while she was in Canada. Jok now works as a community gender technical advisor in Jonglei state through USAID-supported Jonglei Food Security Program (JFSP). Launched in 2011, the program aims to alleviate hunger among 150,000 households in Jonglei state.

Jok’s major task has been to mobilize women in the community to understand their role in society to achieve sustainable development. She encourages them to attend community meetings and voice their opinions. “Any developmental program that will thrive must recognize the contributions of both women and men in order to succeed,” she said. Jok and other women working for JFSP work hard to provide a positive role model in the community, sending a strong message about the benefits of educating girls.

Asked about the meaning of International Women’s Day, Jok said, “This is a day to reflect on achievements of women and on the victims of gender-based injustices. It is also a day to appreciate the contributions made by women and men who have realized the need for gender equality, and have sacrificed their time and resources to advocate for gender equity.”

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”. In observance, this week USAID is profiling brave individuals and dynamic programs focused on addressing gender-based violence around the world.

The nightmare began when she was thirteen. For two years, Cindy was the victim of repeated rape and sexual abuse by her uncle. The details of the case are heart-wrenching; she also suffered death threats against her mother and grandmother if she reported her case.

Cindy’s happy childhood was interrupted by a sexual predator; her life of play was replaced by horror and shame, and later by courtrooms and lawyers. The last time Cindy was raped was two months ago, just before her uncle was formally charged for rape and sexual abuse.

This case underscores the ongoing tragedy of gender-based violence in Latin America. Many women and young girls like Cindy are afraid to speak out because they are threatened by their attackers and fear being stigmatized by their family and communities. Hence, official statistics do not reflect the true scale of the problem.

Guatemala has long been seen as one of the worst examples of crimes against women in the hemisphere. In the past decade alone, nearly 4,000 women were killed. Some of the victims had sought help but were rebuffed by local authorities. Less than four percent of these cases were solved.

Mounting pressure pushed authorities to pass legislation outlawing gender-based violence. In 2009, a law for femicide, violence, sexual abuse, and trafficking was enacted, but only three men were convicted and sentenced even though in the first two weeks of that year 26 women were killed.

In Guatemala, as in other Latin American countries, cases of gender-based violence fall in the lap of an overburdened criminal justice system with no specialized services for women victims. Most women simply opt for dropping charges.

Recently, Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz and former President of the Supreme Court, Thelma Aldana identified the need for a specialized court for cases related to violence against women, exploitation, sexual violence and human trafficking.

USAID Guatemala responded to their request and provided technical assistance, training, and equipment to operationalize a new specialized 24-hour court located in the Attorney General’s Office. The new model opened in October 2012 and includes a criminal court, a public defense office, a police substation, and a forensic clinic, and is staffed by prosecutors, psychologists, doctors, and lawyers. The integrated approach ensures victims receive the assistance they need and strengthens criminal investigation by using scientific evidence. The 24-hour court also includes a special Gesell Chamber that allows judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys to observe interviews with minors conducted by psychologists.

This court, one of the first in Latin America, represents a fundamental change in Guatemala’s justice system. Since the 24-hour court opened its doors, 846 protection measures for women and 307 arrest warrants have been authorized. In total, 125 people have been sent to prison for violence against women and sexual exploitation. Although Cindy is forever marked by the horror she endured, justice for women in Guatemala is finally within reach.

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is “A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women”. In observance, this week USAID is profiling brave individuals and dynamic programs focused on addressing gender-based violence around the world.

The statistics are staggering: one out of three women will be beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Not only are the economic, legal, and social effects devastating and lasting, but gender-based violence has serious health implications.

Physical and sexual violence affects women’s health and well-being and detracts from her reproductive health. Women who have experienced violence are more likely to use contraceptive methods in secret, be stopped by their abusive partner from using family planning, and have a partner who refuses to use a condom. Consequently, they are more likely to have unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions, and to become pregnant as adolescents. Children of abused women have a higher risk of death before reaching age five and violence during pregnancy is associated with low birth weight of babies. Forced and unprotected sex and related trauma increase the risk that women will be infected by STIs and HIV.

The health sector can play a vital role in preventing gender-based violence by helping to identify abuse early, providing victims with the necessary treatment, and referring women to appropriate and informed care. USAID supports stand-alone activities as well as programs that integrate anti-gender violence activities and messages into broader health efforts. Emphasis is placed on prevention interventions such as community mobilization and behavior change communication activities to address and transform the underlying norms that perpetuate violence. By addressing gender violence, health programs can enhance their effectiveness, enable women who have experienced violence to benefit from existing programs, and prevent the escalation of such violence.

Freeing women from violence results in healthier lives for them and for their families. In turn women and their families are able to contribute more to their communities and nations.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack met with Haiti’s Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, Thomas Jacques, today to emphasize USDA’s ongoing commitment to help the Haitian agricultural sector recover from the devastating impact of the 2010 earthquake.

The visit is part of Minister Jacques’ weeklong trip to the United States to meet with various U.S. government agencies and other U.S. organizations about Haitian ministry priorities. Minister Jacques is traveling with a delegation that includes Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture members as part of the U.S.-Brazil Trilateral Initiative on Cooperation.

On Monday, March 4, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack met with Haiti’s Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development Thomas Jacques who outlined his three year strategic plan for revitalization of the Haitian agriculture sector. Photo credit: USDA

During the visit, Secretary Vilsack and Minister Jacques discussed food security and topics on trade. The minister also received a presentation on USDA’s market information systems capacity building in Haiti, just one example of USDA projects initiated after the earthquake.

Haiti was already a fragile and poor country when the massive 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit. The devastation killed more than 300,000 people and greatly reduced economic activities. In the aftermath of the disaster, USDA gradually transitioned from response to recovery efforts.

USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service currently has several food aid projects in Haiti that are funded by the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition and the Food for Progress programs. Two ongoing McGovern-Dole projects in Haiti are supporting a nationwide school feeding program that includes rehabilitating schools, training teachers and school administrators, developing school gardens and providing take-home rations for children. USDA has donated commodities such as milled rice, pinto beans and vegetable oil to support the project. The Food for Progress program is building Haiti’s trade capacity in food safety standards and improving farmers’ access to credit through microcredit lending activities.

FAS is also working with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to help strengthen Haiti’s agricultural ministry’s ability to deliver essential services to farmers. The continued effort to help rebuild Haiti is an example of USDA’s long history of helping those in need.

For more information on USDA food aid and capacity building programs, visit the FAS website.

This blog is part of the Global Health Research & Development Blog Series.

Nearly all great scientific advances can be traced back to methodical research and development (R&D). R&D is a critical step in meeting goals and achieving health results that are cost-effective, sustainable, and grounded in evidence. In December 2012, USAID released its new strategy for global health research and development. The report outlines how the Agency plans to address some of the world’s most challenging health and development issues through new technologies, research and evaluation, and the scale-up of interventions backed by scientific evidence. HIV/AIDS is a large component of this effort and the Agency, through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), is supporting very promising HIV research in several areas, including microbicides, vaccines, and diagnostic tools to detect tuberculosis (TB) in HIV-positive patients.

Women can use this ARV-based vaginal gel to protect themselves against HIV. Photo credit: International Partnership for Microbicides

Microbicides: Microbicides are substances that can be applied vaginally or rectally to reduce the risk of HIV transmission during sex. Vaginal microbicides are a particularly desirable innovation because women can use these products on their own to protect themselves from HIV infection. Given that women make up almost 60% of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and struggle to negotiate other HIV prevention methods – such as condoms – with their partners, USAID supports microbicide research and development as a key intervention in reaching an AIDS-free generation.

In 2010, the CAPRISA 004 clinical trial showed that a vaginal microbicide made up of 1% tenofovir gel (a topical form of the antiretroviral drug) protected women against HIV. Following this success, a new public-private joint venture, known as Propreven, is preparing to obtain regulatory approvals, create manufacturing capacity, and support product distribution of tenofovir gel in various African countries. Two additional studies are also underway – the FACTS 001 clinical trial, which is a follow-on to CAPRISA 004 and is currently in year two, and the CAPRISA 008, a study that is examining and addressing implementation issues for future microbicide programs. Both of these studies are supported by a U.S. and South African partnership made up of USAID, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Government of South Africa.

Vaccines: While microbicides are an important method in preventing HIV when tailored to specific populations, no single approach is likely to have as dramatic an impact on the HIV pandemic as an effective vaccine. That is why USAID has supported HIV vaccine research and development through the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) since 2001. IAVI is a public-private product development partnership that acts as a virtual pharmaceutical company to accelerate the development and clinical testing of HIV vaccine candidates. On the vaccine design front, IAVI and its partners in the Neutralizing Antibody Consortium (NAC) have designed four new immunogens – the active ingredients of vaccines that stimulate the immune system – and are testing these structures as part of potential HIV vaccines.

Two clinical trials involving IAVI’s work are examining new HIV vaccine regimens. One trial nearing completion in east Africa is evaluating a vaccine regimen that uses a new technique called electroporation and some exciting results are expected in the coming year. Electroporation applies a small charge to effectively distribute the contents of the vaccine in the muscle and enhance uptake of the DNA. Another trial poised to begin within the next few weeks will evaluate new viral vectors carrying HIV antigens.

The Cepheid Xpert is a rapid TB diagnostic and sensitive to HIV-associated TB. Photo credit: Cepheid

TB Diagnostics: Microbicides and vaccines are critical priorities for USAID’s HIV prevention efforts; however, we must also provide care and support to people already living with HIV. Since tuberculosis is the leading cause of death among HIV-positive people, USAID supports the coordination of TB and HIV services to better care for people living with each disease. In recent years the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of TB has become more complicated because of two factors: HIV-associated TB and multidrug-resistant (MDR) TB. HIV-associated TB often goes undetected because the most common TB diagnostic, called sputum smear microscopy, is not very effective in persons infected with HIV.

Fortunately, there is a promising new diagnostic for TB, including HIV-associated TB, on the horizon! This rapid and sensitive test, called the Cepheid Xpert MTB/RIF® assay, has the potential to revolutionize the diagnosis of TB. While Xpert still faces some operational and programmatic barriers, such as high costs and the need for a sustained power supply, USAID has already begun supporting the roll-out of this new tool by helping countries obtain Xpert machines, designing associated policy guidance and strategies, and developing technical approaches to guide implementation.

Research and development in these three key areas is what keeps USAID at the forefront in the fight against HIV/AIDS. As David Stanton, the Director of the Office of HIV/AIDS at USAID said, “These clinical trials and new technologies have the potential to dramatically change the HIV/AIDS landscape and reverse the trajectory of the global HIV pandemic.” To learn more about USAID’s strategy for global health research and development in the coming years, be sure to check out our latest Report to Congress: Health-Related Research and Development Strategy 2011-2015 (PDF).

Read other posts in theGlobal Health Research & Development Blog Series: